Changing the culture at Jaguar

I NTRODUCTI ON
This case study looks at how Jaguar, one of the world's
most prestigious car manufacturers, has been involved
in a culture change programme to create new ways of
working for the twenty-first century.
Corporate culture reflects the personality of an organisation. It includes the shared beliefs and the policies
and procedures that determine the ways in which the
organisation and its people behave and solve business
problems. You can quickly get a feel for the culture of
an organisation just by looking around and talking to
the people who work for it. For example, some organisations are very dynamic and their people are
encouraged to take risks. Others are backward looking
and rarely take risks.

Changes in the
car industry in the
1980s and 1990s
The car industry has changed dramatically. At the start of the twentieth century, the industry was dominated by the
achievements of Henry Ford who created a manufacturing system that was
known as Fordism. In Fordist organisations, the manufacturing system was
geared towards creating standardised
products such as the Model T Ford.
The needs of the production line determined the life of the production
line worker. Workers
knew

to ask for their products and services,

but mainly on their quality.
The concept of Total Quality
Management (TQM) was developed in
the US after the end of World War Two
but was implemented first in Japan. It
changed the balance of world trade and
led many companies in the west to
rethink their attitudes, policies and
structure. TQM can only operate when
responsibility and power are delegated
downwards through all levels of the
organisation.

The culture of the organisation provides the meaning,

direction and clarity (the human glue) that drives the
business to achieve its goals. From time to time it
becomes necessary to change the culture of an
organisation to make sure that it fits the environment in
which the organisation operates.

Jaguar becomes
part of Ford
In recent years the world car industry has
been rationalised. Instead of hundreds
of car companies world-wide, there are
ten major global players. Part of this
rationalisation has seen the development
of a new Ford group of companies.
In the 1990s Ford took control of
Jaguar. It recently overhauled the
Halewood plant to produce the new
X400 Jaguar and created a new way of
working. Many of the employees at
Halewood had previously produced
Ford Escorts using traditional manufacturing techniques, in which they
were not encouraged to show initiative.
They now needed to learn new
approaches to work which involved
empowerment and flexibility; more
responsibility was given to the operative at the sharp end of production.
What better place to introduce a culture
change than by starting with a prestige
marque like Jaguar?

Strategy

W HAT SHADOW DO YOU CAST?

Being a good role model will encourage others to do the right thing
(leading by example). Our children will always do what they SEE
us do, and not what we TELL them to do.

exactly what was expected of them and

were given set periods of time to carry out
particular operations. This system was
very successful, lowered production costs
and brought the motor car within the
budget of the ordinary family in the west.

As the world became

more competitive, organisations had to respond quickly to rapidly
changing demands. They could no
longer rely on producing standardised
products but had to manage a wider
portfolio of associated products. This
demanded increased flexibility, and the
active co-operation of a versatile and
increasingly skilled workforce.

However, during the 1980s the car

industry was transformed by new
manufacturing approaches from Japan.
Japanese success was based partly on
the competitive prices they were able

In the 1980s and the 1990s, many

American and European companies
adopted more flexible Japanese ways
of working so they could respond
quickly to changing market conditions.

To manage the change process at the

Jaguar plant, Ford worked closely with
a consultancy group called Senn
Delaney Leadership. Senn Delaney
believes that it is important to align the
culture, structure and the strategy of an
organisation. The organisation that
seeks to change its strategy without
changing its culture will experience
resistance to change. The successful
management of change is crucial.
The strategy of the organisation
includes the overall business direction
and the plan to achieve it. Structure
includes the organisational design and

model, the processes, systems, policies

and procedures that support it.
Organisations involved in the change
process often focus on strategy and
structure and neglect culture change.
As a result, the existing culture acts
like an invisible anchor that drags the
business down.
In the motor industry in the early
1990s, many employees were not used
to making decisions for themselves.
They expected to be told what to do.
This slowed down change when
companies wanted to move on to
self-managed teamwork approaches.
In the 1990s Jaguar overhauled its
approaches to work to create an environment in which employees were
encouraged to take ownership. They
would be involved in managing a
process of continuous improvement
that revolved around lean production.
Lean production involves standardising work processes to cut out waste.
The standard set is the best identified
method of operation at a particular
moment in time. This standard is
continuously improved.
The key to lean production is to
identify which production processes
add value. Processes which do not add
value are cut out so that labour and
machinery can focus on added value
activities.
To introduce lean production at
Halewood it was necessary to
transform existing attitudes in the
workforce. Employees had to take
responsibility for introducing new
working methods and to continuously
suggest further improvements. They
would work in small teams with a
team leader.

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information on the organisation

www.jaguar.com

GLOSSARY OF KEYWORDS

The Jaguar/Halewood
Difference Programme

Open communication: openly communicating with each other regardless

of level.

On a day-to-day basis Halewood

people would focus on:

To transform working patterns at

Halewood, a Halewood Difference
Programme was introduced based on a
new vision and set of guiding values
and behaviours:

Quality: consistently delivering world

class quality products and service.

Teamwork: working together for the

good of Halewood as members of
one team.

Customer focus: striving to exceed

customer expectations.

The Jaguar Vision

Jaguar targets industry leadership in
quality, value for money, customer care
and human resource management.
Compatible with these targets the
vision for the Halewood body and
assembly plant is:

Respect: treating each other with

respect, dignity, courtesy and having
pride in the workplace.

with external customers on a day-today basis. This provided the basis for a
new organisational culture.

Adaptability and flexibility: showing

a commitment to embrace change.

Accountability/Responsibility: being
accountable and responsible for their
personal conduct and their tasks.

The Halewood programme stimulated a

more open and democratic relationship
between managers and employees as
employees became key decision makers.

ACCOUNTABILITY

a world class vehicle manufacturing facility producing Jaguar cars

for the discerning luxury car buyer,
providing maximum job satisfaction and security

Making the change

You can't force a new culture on an
unreceptive workforce. Introducing
changes in culture involves a detailed
programme for introducing new ideas
in a participative way.

a safe environment in which highly

motivated employees demonstrate
a pride, passion in the product and
an earnest desire to drive continuous improvements

Needs and assessments measurement

The first stage was a series of one-to-one
interviews and focus group activities for
representatives from all areas of the
organisation. These identified the
cultural strengths and the barriers to
change at Halewood. These sessions
were designed to find out how employees thought and felt about their work
culture, and to provide the feedback to
outline the strategy and the key messages for the culture change programme.

a management that respects its

employees and is committed to best
practices in terms of fairness,
recruitment,
communications,
training, education, diversity and
individual employee welfare

management and employees working together to achieve shared

goals, volume and job growth
opportunities

Management workshops
The next phase involved a series of three
day sessions for managers to build up a
commitment to the change programme.

the leading manufacturer in the

community, fulfilling environmental responsibilities and proactive in
supporting local initiatives.

Guiding values and behaviours set out

a picture of how people within the
plant would work with each other and

Union workshops
Union leaders took part in workshops
so they could better understand the new
Jaguar approach to building cars on the

Encouraging accountability will reduce the blame culture and

encourage responsible behaviour. Embracing the challenge of
climbing the ladder will result in higher perspective.

basis of pride and dedication. This

gained union support for the change
and showed everyone what the benefits
would be.
Management and union workshop
Management and unions identified a
joint approach to take the initiative
forward and embrace the new values.
Supervisors workshops
Supervisors were to play a key role in
introducing the new ways of working.
Supervisors workshops therefore concentrated on how they could help to
lead the change process.
Pilot workshops
Five pilot workshops of thirty participants
taken from all levels of the organisation
were trialled. The emphasis was on breaking down divisions within the organisation so that a new model of teamworking
relationships could be established.
Selection and training of internal
facilitators
To cascade the Jaguar (Halewood)
Difference message across the organisation, sixteen internal facilitators from
all areas and levels of the organisation
were selected and trained.
Two day workshops for all employees
The final stage of the roll out of the
culture change programme was a series
of two-day workshops led by the internal facilitators. These sessions gave all
3,000 employees a clear understanding
of the difference between working on a
Ford Escort and creating the new
Jaguar X400. They also heightened
awareness of the Jaguar Difference
values and behaviours.
The early phases of the new programme were very encouraging. It was
immediately obvious that everyone had

a common goal - to make a success of

Halewood.
By involving everyone in the culture
change programme it was relatively
easy to establish a shared vision.
Through the workshops, employees
built up real enthusiasm for the empowerment process. Employees were
motivated by the fact that they had a
role to play in the change process. For
example, one employee commented
favourably on the initiative when
he stated, I always thought the company
wanted me to leave my brain at the gate.

Taking the
initiative forward
The success of the X400 production
system at Halewood is based on three
pillars.
1. An emphasis on quality at every
stage in the production of the new
cars.

Which company owns Jaguar?

What other car businesses does
this company own?

Lean production: Elimination of

waste by concentrating on value
added activities.

Continuous improvement:
Ongoing cycle of making regular
small scale changes to operational
activities.

Managing change: Systematic

and planned attempts to change
the organisations strategy,
structure and culture.

Culture: The way we do things

around here. The pattern of doing
things in an organisation based on
norms and relationships.

Rationalisation: Simplification
process to avoid duplication of
effort.

Culture change programme:

Programme for changing culture
from an existing pattern to a new
more desirable one.
Fordism: A systematic way of
making large quantities of
standardised products for the
mass market.
Hierarchy: The layers of
command within an organisation.

Strategy: Making the major

decisions in an organisation,
involving long term plans and
major resourcing decisions.
Total Quality Management
(TQM): A system for ensuring
quality at every stage in the
production of a product rather
than end-of-line quality inspection.
Vision: Picture of the way an
organisation can move forward to
a more desirable future.

2. The culture change programme - creating an empowered, entrepreneurial

and committed workforce, and
3. Establishing centres of excellent
practice across the organisation
which act as benchmarks for
improving performance in areas
carrying out similar operations.
New facilitators will take the change
process forward even further. They
are being coached by existing
facilitators and throughout the organisation employees are being formed into
empowered teams to drive lean
production forward.
The Halewood plant will provide the
benchmark for improvements across
the Ford organisation in the UK.

QUESTIONS

Benchmarks: The highest standards currently achievable within

an industry, organisation or plant.

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information on the organisation

What do you understand by the

term Fordism? When was this
approach to car manufacturing
most successful?

Business Case Studies LLP

What is lean production? Why

is lean production most likely
to be successful with an
empowered workforce?

How has the culture change

programme at the Halewood
plant involved the participation
of the workforce? How might
this have helped to overcome
barriers to change?

How is the culture change

programme likely to give Jaguar a
competitive edge over rivals?

www.jaguar.com